The football is hitting Eric Ward’s hands with a little more zip these days.

The Texas Tech wide receiver has been catching passes from quarterback Seth Doege since the two were members of the scout team, but this summer, Ward said, those offerings have come in much quicker.

“His arm is a lot stronger,” Ward said. “He can make a lot tougher passes. He could have made them last year, but I guess the confidence level has tripled.”

The improved arm strength is a plus for Doege as he prepares for his second season as the Tech starter, but it is an incremental change compared to his mental growth.

“He knows what he’s capable of now,” Ward said.

Experience has a way of sparking that boost in self-assurance. This time last year, Doege arrived in Dallas for Big 12 media days with wide eyes as he prepared to start for the first time since his sophomore year in high school. One year, 4,004 yards and 28 touchdowns later, he showed up to the same hotel as a veteran who says he still has plenty left to prove.

Doege believes he has been underrated in a conference where praise and adulation have been heaped heavily upon the likes of West Virginia’s Geno Smith, Oklahoma’s Landry Jones and Kansas State’s Collin Klein. He also knows that comes with the territory.

“If we would have won some more games,” Doege said, “maybe some guys who put up big numbers and had really good seasons would have been recognized. But when you go 5-7 and you don’t win a whole lot of games, the talk is going to be that you ended the bowl streak.”

That streak, which came to an end with Tech’s season-finale loss against Baylor, had stood at 11 seasons (2000 through 2010), and the 5-7 campaign was the Red Raiders’ first losing season since 1992.

It’s not the sort of indelible mark the West Texas native wants to leave on the program he’s followed since childhood.

“Speaking for all the seniors,” Doege said, “we want to leave a legacy at Texas Tech that nobody has left before, and that’s to win a Big 12 championship outright, and we believe we have the tools and have put ourselves in position to take that journey.”

That wasn’t the only bold proclamation that came out of the senior during media days. He also said it’s his expectation that Tech will have the best offense in the country, one that will “put up a lot of numbers and a lot of points.”

Doege’s confidence in the unit is emboldened by a talented group of players at the skill positions. In addition to Ward, the team’s leading receiver in 2011 (84 catches for 800 yards), Doege benefits from the return of nearly every one of his top receivers from a season ago, as well as the arrival of playmakers such as SaDale Foster, Javon Bell, Tyson Williams, Javares McRoy and Jakeem Grant.

McRoy and Grant redshirted last season, and Williams sat out after transferring from West Texas A&M.

The quarterback and the coaching staff are also confident that running back Eric Stephens will regain the form he demonstrated through the first five games of last season, which could provide a sense of balance the team missed in his absence.

“The whole thing about being a quarterback is, ‘How good is your supporting cast going to be?’” Tech coach Tommy Tuberville said. “It’s better, and I think that’s going to help him.”

Doege, who Tuberville called “one of the best quarterbacks in the country, no doubt about it,” believes he has to be better, too. He’s studied game film and analyzed how he handled himself in difficult situations. He has said this offseason that he must be able to more quickly shake off bad plays.

Part of that is not being afraid to make them. Doege said he has less doubt about pulling the trigger, more confident that he can get the ball where it needs to go.

His coach has little doubt it often will.

“I’d be shocked if he didn’t throw for 5,000 (yards),” Tuberville said. “I’m not putting pressure on him, but he has that ability.”